Sure, Canada’s capital city is cold—in fact it’s the seventh coldest capital in the world, behind such frigid places as Ulaan-Bataar, Mongolia and Helsinki, Finland. But if you can withstand the winters, Ottawa has so much to offer.

For starters, Ottawa features a magical blend of city and country. Wherever you are, you’re probably not far from a park (or a field—it boasts more farmland than any other Canadian city). It’s also exceedingly clean, so much so that Forbes ranked Ottawa the fourth cleanest major city in the world.

And then there’s the people. They’re undoubtedly some of the friendliest anywhere—perhaps because their city puts them in a good mood. After all, Ottawa boasts the second-highest standard of living in the nation.

As for as the local economy goes, salaries are the highest of any city in Canada, and unemployment is extremely low. The Federal government is the city’s largest employer, but technology is a big local player as well: Ottawa’s 1,800 tech companies employ over 60,000 people.

One other bonus to living in Ottawa is the great cell phone reception, as most of the major carriers provide excellent service to the city. Read on to learn the ins and outs of coverage in Ottawa.

Coverage in Ottawa At-a-Glance

Beautiful scenery and the Senators hockey team are not the only reasons to come to Ottawa--there's also the great cell phone coverage. Ottawa comes in with an stellar coverage score of 88 out of
100. Here's a guide to coverage for the entirety of Ontario.

What we love

Bell, Rogers and Telus all blanket Ottawa with great coverage

Competitive
market with lots of choice

4G LTE
widely available

What could be improved

Coverage less
reliable the further you travel from the city

Freedom's coverage in Ottawa is not great

88/100

Carrier
Network Coverage in Ottawa

While no carrier's perfect, three of the four major networks perform suberbly throughout Ottawa. This means you can join any of them--or the multitude of smaller carriers that run on their networks--to get great coverage.

Best Coverage in
Ottawa by Network

Network

Covered Area %

Bell

99.86%

Rogers

99.70%

Freedom

20.90%

Telus

99.88%

Cell Phone
Coverage in Ottawa by Area

Ottawan encompasses 1924.51 square miles, and the
most robust local carriers, Bell, Rogers, and Telus, cover nearly every bit of it:

Geographic Area
Covered in Ottawa per mi2

Ottawa is broadly covered by both 3G and 4G LTE technology. 3G is the
network that some older phones run on, and the one newer 4G LTE-capable
devices fall back to when unable to reach a primary network. Here's how much
territory the top carriers cover:

Coverage in Ottawa (1924.51 m2) by 3G/4G LTE

Bell

Rogers

Freedom

Telus

3G

1921.83

1918.74

154.01

1921.83

4G LTE

1922.30

1885.39

402.25

1922.30

Big Carriers
vs. Small Carriers in Ottawa

When choosing a cell phone providers, there's no need to limit yourself to
the big companies. There are dozens of smaller carriers that run on the major
networks, but charge a fraction of the price for service. Known as Mobile
Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs for short), these carriers purchase network service from
the major providers at wholesale prices, then pass the savings on to
consumers.

Getting the
Best Plan & Coverage

WhistleOut's industry-leading coverage check feature supercharges an already robust comparison
engine by allowing you to instantly see what coverage is like at your
location. Just punch in your address, and we'll do the rest.

In addition to showing you a map of your area with the coverage from all
four major carriers, we filter through the available cell phone plans and present only those from
carriers who provide good reception to you.

Cell Phone
Carriers in Ottawa

Here's the full list of wireless carriers (big and small) in Ottawa, and
the network that each belongs to. Note that the smaller
carriers—PhoneBox, Fido, etc.—utilize the networks of the
major carriers.

One More Thing: Using Public WiFi in Ottawa

Ottawa offers
free WiFi in a variety of public spaces, including libraries, museums, and
parks. Check out some of the places offering free WiFi below. This is handy
when you want to save your cellular data.

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About this Service: WhistleOut maintains a broad list of providers to help you compare, always covering at least the top ten providers in every category so you can make a transparent choice. When you see a 'promoted product' or a product with a 'go to site' button it means that WhistleOut is earning a transaction click fee for the referral. We audit the prices across the whole market regularly and we don't alter the ranking of products in our organic search based on any commercial relationship.
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